50th anniversary of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada

The Canadian contingent of a Muslim sect that promotes peace and morality celebrated 50 years of being in this country on Sunday.

Thousands converged on Nathan Phillips Square to mark the 50th anniversary of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada, an international Islamic revival movement founded on the belief that their messiah came in the form of its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Sunday’s event included speeches from Mayor John Tory and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

“This is our home, and this is the land we love,” Lal Khan Malik, national president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada, told the crowd.

Malik spoke of fundraising efforts to help those displaced by wildfires in northern Alberta.

Tory called Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada “a community committed to building Canada.”

Wynne remarked they have made “the community strong.”

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada launched a campaign late in 2014 to fight youth radicalization. That announcement came following the killing of two soldiers on Canadian soil by homegrown jihadists.